Simple Living = Frugality = Peace of Mind: Personal Finance and Stress Control

The Carnival of Money Stories

Scheherazade spins a story

Many of our favorite bloggers are still submitting posts that aren’t stories. Some are tips, some are lists, some are reports, some are how-to’s…but a real narrative with rising action, a climax, and a dénouement (in nonfiction, that would be the lead, a body leading up to a point or resolution, and the wrap) is rare. And richer than all of our tribe. What made the original Carnival of Money Stories unique—and, IMHO, interesting—was the emphasis on story. Without that, what you have is yet another round-up of PF posts, a reiteration of the Festival of Frugality and the Carnival of Personal Finance. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…just that it’s being done elsewhere.

On the other hand, as submissions started to pour in, so few actual stories appeared among them that I began to realize why recent hosts have included volumes of the same stuff every other carnival is doing. If you restricted your choices only to narratives in which something happens, your carnival would be a bit light on content. So I decided to divide this edition into two sections, the first to include full-blown narratives that spin us a tale, and the second to include the best of all the other journalistic genres. In effect, then, every post is an editor’s pick; to gild that lily, though, I’ve marked the ones that delighted me the most with little red hearts…♥♥♥

Frog went a-courtin'...

True Stories

♥♥♥ FMF
Free Money FinanceMy Jobs, Promotion, Success, and Failure
This is the latest chapter in the saga of FMF’s two former bosses, Rude and Maniac. The story gets more amazing with every passing day. More is promised!

♥♥♥ Kathryn
Out of Debt: Christian Personal Finances and Debt HelpInternational Unemployment Rates
Startling! Compares the U.S. unemployment rate with those of a long list of other countries.

♥♥♥ Robert Alan
Sell It! On the WebMaximize Twitter for Your Small Business
For those of us who already spend too much time on the Web, there are third-party applications to help automate some of Twitter’s crucial functions.

♥♥♥ Patrick @ Military Money
Military Finance NetworkIs REDUX Retirement Worth It?
If you’re career military, you should look at this. In addition to a clear-eyed comparison between REDUX and the High-3 Retirement System, Patrick also provides links to several military retirement calculators. If you’re a voting taxpayer who cares what happens to the men and women who choose to defend our country, you’ll want to take time to read this, too…it’s an eye-opener.